Why you should join FISA.....

[Tom D]

The problem is, even though all the work we do for the commission or tilhill and the like is arb work, they still want us to be FISA'd up. There's no point arguing, its either do as we say or you don't get the job. If the AA are talking to the HSE on this issue they aren't talking to the Commission.

[Wood wasp]

The bureaucracy and regulation is why I've never pitched for FC work and turned it down when they've sounded me out. Bit of a shame really as I've deliberately configured my outfit for small compartments which are uneconomic for the larger operators. Life's too short for all that nonsense though!

 

Incidentally I looked a job today and even though private ground I've to do risk assessments/methodology for refuelling, working near watercourses etc. I'm not sure if "we don't spill fuel as its too expensive" will be sufficient.

[daltontrees]

Hi Jules, I hope you're well.

 

Exactly, the problem is the HSE RIDDOR reports don't differentiate between the different industry sectors. Hence FISA, originally, representing the larger organisations within the forestry industry sector, were able to identify chainsaw etc. accidents, of which there were many (apparently) and hence the mandatory refresher training requirement was introduced.

 

Arguably, I would suggest, the skills requirements, and therefore the corresponding need for refresher / update training, is much more diverse in the 'arb' sector and hence more challenging.

 

regards..

Paul

 

That's kind of what I suspected. But Tom's original post has been jumped on here as a bit of a rant by a few people about FISA whereas he seemed just to be concerned that "if the HSE decide that you need refresher training, thanks to advice from FISA, and you or one of your employees has an accident then you may be in trouble". The threat would therefore seem to be HSE being gullible or susceptible to supporting or joining cabals. I don't see that happening, especially if they recognise (as surely they already do) that the sub-industries have different accident stats and therefore different H&S needs.

 

Until there's an AISA proposed, I can live without the stickers.

[agrimog]

most of the injuries that occur in the forrestry sector are machine or transport based, there are very few saw operations left in large scale commerciall foresttry these days,

[montyslater]

There aren't even many machine based accidents the accident rate for forestry is high because of the massive spectrum of different sectors it calls forestry including untrained cowboys they wont do the refresher training whatever

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

I would not be involved with anything FISA has touched, there is so much in house fighting that the whole thing will implode in the not to distant future, it is not being run to promote safety, rather to financially benifit certain large contractors, till it becomes a seperate body, financed by subscriptions, and not dependant on those who seek to control a certain part of what is in effect a publicly owned resource, it will be nothing but a bag of sh1t....please excuse my language

 

Spot on

 

The bureaucracy and regulation is why I've never pitched for FC work and turned it down when they've sounded me out. Bit of a shame really as I've deliberately configured my outfit for small compartments which are uneconomic for the larger operators. Life's too short for all that nonsense though!

 

Incidentally I looked a job today and even though private ground I've to do risk assessments/methodology for refuelling, working near watercourses etc. I'm not sure if "we don't spill fuel as its too expensive" will be sufficient.

 

Ditto.

[AA Teccie (Paul)]

The problem is, even though all the work we do for the commission or tilhill and the like is arb work, they still want us to be FISA'd up. There's no point arguing, its either do as we say or you don't get the job. If the AA are talking to the HSE on this issue they aren't talking to the Commission.

 

Hi Tom, I understand your frustration, ad indeed apologise for any contribution we've inadvertently made.

 

We do (try) to talk to the Commission but with very varying degrees of success, which varies greatly in the different regions. Whilst the FC are obviously one organisation, in my experience, the regions operate with varying degrees of autonomy and trying to get a consistent approach is challenging (a grave understatement!)

 

The most recent example of this would be two 'tree surgery' framework contracts advertised side by side on the FC website where one (East Anglia) stipulated contractors must be ARB Approved and the other (South West) didn't mention it at all.

 

As an aside, but related, at a recent HSE event, 2 chaps from the FC were present and when I questioned them about their take on things, as far as tree surgery was concerned, and they indicated mandatory FISA training would not be applicable in the tree...but as soon as they stood on the ground it would. Needless to say I raised my eyebrows over the top of my head..!

 

We will persevere where/when we can.

 

Cheers..

Paul